The invention relates generally to a system and method for detecting fruit. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for detecting growing fruit using a flash to illuminate the fruit and a camera to capture an image, wherein the image is analyzed to identify the fruit based on an illumination pattern appearing on curved fruit.
The production of high value agriculture—in particular for commodities such as fruit and nuts—requires the high resolution measurement and management of the crop during the growing season to increase efficiency. At present there is limited automated technology that can measure crop volume, density, and other metrics in the field during the growing season; however, there is a great need for accurate and high resolution measurements. Growers can utilize the crop volume and other information to be more precise and efficient with their management practices, leading to an increased yield at harvest. Further, high resolution and accurate fruit detection systems are a fundamental requirement of an automated harvesting system.
Other automated fruit detection methods have distinct drawbacks, such as being sensitive to scale and color, detecting fruit of a single size or limited range of sizes, failing to detect partially occluded fruit, and being unable to detect fruit amongst background scene clutter in the field. All of these drawbacks limit the ability to apply these methods for in-situ operation in orchards or vineyards, for example. It would therefore be advantageous to develop methods and systems that can detect fruit of multiple sizes, in an outdoor environment, and with background clutter.